Category — Globes

Two antique globes, one of the sky, one of the earth, by famous cartographer Willem Janszoon Blaeu, have been sold for EUR 800,000 at auction at Christie’s in Amsterdam. Bought for a private collection in Europe, Christie’s says this is the largest sum ever paid for a work of art in the Netherlands, with the exception of paintings.

You can read the full story from Radio Netherlands.

     Update:

Apparently the Blaeu Globes went to a Dutch collector for more than double the estimated price. The reason for auctioning the globes? Liechtenstein royal Prince Hans Adam stated:

“There is just not enough room to either exhibit all those works of art in museums or to use them for decoration purposes in our private apartments.”

You can read more about the auction in this article from Hello Magazine.

[tags]antiques, antique globes, antique auctions [/tags]

Hemispheres, United Airlines onboard magazine has an article about antique map collecting in this month’s edition called Maps, Globes and Legends. The authors write:

We asked, as noncollectors might, “Why maps? Why globes?” Stuchlik asked rhetorically, “Why any art? Why coins? Why stamps, ceramics, spoons?” Within an hour we came to understand: Maps and Globes are beautiful and capable of carrying the imagination all over the world, to different times, and throughout the history of human knowledge.

[tags]Antique Maps, Antique Map Collecting, Globes[/tags]

The 11th Symposium of the International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes will take place in Venice, Italy (Vincenzo Coronelli’s native town,) September 28th to September 30th, 2007. Themes of the Symposium include:

..all aspects of the study of globes, especially the history of globes, globes in their historical and socio-cultural context, globe makers, especially Coronelli, globe related instruments such as armillary spheres, planetaria and telluria.

Visit the Society’s registration page to find out more.

Via: MapHist.

[tags]Globes, Coronelli, Famous Cartographers, Cartographic History[/tags]